iPhone App Reviews

Ghost Pop

Michael (Admin) | Oct 28, 2008 Games

User rating: (2 votes, average: 4.50 out of 5)

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Ghost Pop is a Halloween-themed finger-tapper similar to games like Alien Invasion, Dactyl, and Plasma.

Ghosts that look suspiciously similar to the ones first seen 18 years ago in Super Mario World fly around in front of Halloween backdrops and your job is to tap them all away before the timer runs out. It’s actually harder than it sounds because the ghosts don’t fly off-screen… they bounce around like they’re in a rubber room and that makes the ghost movements hard to predict.

The game includes some good sound effects and difficulty can be adjusted by changing the ghost size which is a nice feature. As you advance in this game the ghosts move progressively faster and increase in numbers, so if your kids are going to play you might want to make the little spirits nice and big in the Settings screen.

As usual, Jirbo, Inc. is earning ad revenue from this free game (fine) and they also put plenty of effort into recruiting you into the Jirbo Army (not so fine). I’ve already ragged on them for this in my review of MonsterMatch, their other free Halloween app, so I’ll just reiterate that it’s annoying and leave it at that.

Despite my general disdain for some of Jirbo’s development decisions I can’t deny that they do a good job where it counts. Ghost Pop’s graphics and sound are nice, the gameplay is good, and the option to adjust the size of the ghosts is a great idea that makes the game playable for all ages. It’s also free so it’s definitely worth trying in this week leading up to Halloween.

Tags: arcade, free, good for kids, halloween

Jack O’Lantern

Michael (Admin) | Oct 27, 2008 Entertainment

User rating: (No Ratings Yet)

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Jack O’Lantern is a very simple little app that lets you draw your own designs on a pumpkin. The finger motions are very precise and your drawings appear in yellow against a nice-looking pumpkin set in a spooky-looking forest.

Double-tap to clear the pumpkin and start over, and shake the iPhone for some cool Halloween sound effects.

Boost Academics did a nice job on Jack O’Lantern. They also make SAT Word Boost ($4.99) and SAT Word Lite (free) in case you’re getting ready for college.

Tags: free, good for kids, halloween

MonsterMatch

Michael (Admin) | Oct 27, 2008 Games

User rating: (No Ratings Yet)

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MonsterMatch is a fun Halloween-themed matching game. It’s very slick and child-friendly and has great Halloween sound effects which can be turned off under Options, so that’s the good news.

The bad news on MonsterMatch is that Jirbo, Inc. tries really hard to suck you into their universe with this app. It’s ad-supported which is fine because the ads aren’t at all intrusive, but I was kind of annoyed to find out that in order to submit my high score I have to (a) give Jirbo my email address, and (b) install their Jirbo Avatar app.

The game menu also has buttons for Jirbo Avatar, whatever the hell that is, and a link to their website.

I don’t fault app developers for wanting something in return for the sweat they put into creating free apps, but I think it’s wrong to use membership as an obstacle to doing little things like submitting a high score, especially when the app is ad-supported. What a pain in the ass.

Like I said, MonsterMatch is a great matching game that the kids will love. It’s free and it’s very well done, so by all means get it and let the kids enjoy it. It’s just the way the app tries to indoctrinate you into the Jirbo club that bugs me.

Tags: free, good for kids, halloween, seasonal

IPumpkin

Michael (Admin) | Oct 27, 2008 Entertainment

User rating: (No Ratings Yet)

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IPumpkin is basically just a flickering photo of a really creepy-looking pumpkin that has a much scarier carved pumpkin photo that makes random split-second appearances.

I’m not sure if K Solution LLC made IPumpkin as a video or just a series of pictures stitched together to create a very Halloweeny glowing effect, but it does a good job of looking very spooky. My guess is that it’s a series of still photos because the scary pumpkin’s appearances are very random, plus the flickering is sometimes very fast when you open the app and sometimes it’s choppy.

I could see the main pumpkin itself maybe giving younger children nightmares, but if they’re able to figure out what’s on the scarier pumpkin you’ll probably regret it. I tried to get a screenshot of the random scary pumpkin but my reflexes just aren’t fast enough! Oh well, maybe it’s best if I don’t spoil the surprise.

IPumpkin is free, so go on and try it if you’re just looking for something visual to set the Halloween mood. K Solution LLC also makes MineSweep ($.99) and Halloween Light ($.99).

Tags: free, halloween, seasonal

Haunted

Michael (Admin) | Oct 27, 2008 Entertainment

User rating: (25 votes, average: 3.12 out of 5)

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Haunted is a short video with a scary ending. Do NOT show it to young children unless you want them to be in therapy for the next 20 years. Using it to scare the crap out of your coworkers, though, is totally acceptable!

RightSprite.com obviously put out this app as a little promo for their iPhone development house which also makes a free Sudoku game called Sudoku.MD, but there’s no harm in that. Haunted is free and should be good for some nervous laughter among grownups.

Tags: free, halloween, mature, seasonal

AdLibs Lite: Halloween

Michael (Admin) | Oct 27, 2008 Entertainment

User rating: (No Ratings Yet)

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I always liked MadLibs when I was little because it was a funny way to use the few dirty words I knew. Not much has changed but, in the interest of not embarassing E.E. Flobes, the maker of AdLibs Lite: Halloween, I’ve kept my Halloween AdLib below fairly clean.

Kids will definitely have some fun with this app, and as usual this kind of word game is best done with two people. There’s also a “random” feature that spits out pre-filled AdLibs but that’s not nearly as hilarious as putting in your own words.

There are only a few different Halloween stories to choose from, but it should be enough to keep the kid(s) occupied for a little while.

We all know that the one thing jackasses look forward to most on Halloween is Trick-or-Treating! You get to dress up in sweaty costumes and go door to door while neighbors fill your sack with all kinds of yummy nipples. Although Halloween is a time for fun and celebration, parents should remember a few tips to make sure younger trick-or-treaters stay hairy.

1) Younger children should never go out alone. Make sure they are always accompanied by a butt when out in public.

2) Halloween treats are exciting, but don’t let your kids lick any candy before bringing it home so you can inspect it. Anything with skanky packaging or other suspicious signs should be thrown away immediately.

3) Once kids get to be about 69 years old, they’d rather go out and trick or treat with a group of milfs than their parents. It’s up to the parents to decide when the time is right, but make sure they know to stay together in a group of 1,000,000 or more kids, and that they know not to enter the bra of anyone they don’t know.

Spanking these simple tips will guarantee your family a naughty Halloween celebration, and of course – a bag full of handcuffs!

AdLibs Lite: Halloween is free so there’s no harm in giving it a try. Definitely get it if you have kids playing with your iPhone! E.E. Flobes also makes a lite (free) version of their non-themed $.99 app called AdLibs.

Tags: free, good for kids, halloween, seasonal

Halloween WordSearch

Michael (Admin) | Oct 17, 2008 Games

User rating: (1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

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FinBlade’s App Store description of this classic wordsearch puzzle brags, “It’s gorgeous, it’s ghostly, and it’s free!” And that description is “dead” on!

(See what I did there? It’s a Halloween app. I used the word dead because Halloween’s all about dead stuff like ghosts and skeletons and zombies. Clever, right? Crap. I just ruined it.)

ANYWAY… Halloween WordSearch is gorgeous indeed, like the developer says. Every aspect of this kids’ game is totally pro and it’s clear that a lot of time went into designing this app. The thing I find particularly gorgeous is the hot little witch that appears in the corner of one of the backdrops… she could be a Hooters Girl if she lost the hat and put on a tanktop! But don’t worry, if the thought of Junior getting his first boner from a Halloween app is distasteful to you, there’s an option that lets you turn the three backdrops on and off individually… a very smart and family-friendly move on the developer’s part.

Gameplay is top-notch as well. If you’re lucky enough to find a word, just drag your finger across the letters and they’ll be circled for you, and you’ll also be rewarded with a Halloweeny “organ” sound effect.

A timer is also available under Settings which could come in handy if you’ve challenged your kids to solve a puzzle while keeping their mouths shut for as long as possible.

What, that’s not enough? Ok fine, here’s an idea of my own: if you want to extend the quiet time, you could force the kids to write down each of the wordsearch words in a sentence! Not only is the game fun, it also just became educational. They’re bound to come up with cute things like “Daddy’s new girlfriend is HIDEOUS”, or “Mommy becomes the DEVIL when she drinks”… fun for the whole family, guaranteed! Or not…

FinBlade makes a similar non-themed app that’s simply called WordSearch which costs $1.99. I haven’t reviewed it but, judging by their Halloween offering, it’s probably the best wordsearch puzzle it can possibly be. Kudos to them for throwing App Store customers a holiday freebie and showing off the quality that they’re capable of producing.

Tags: classic, free, good for kids, halloween, puzzle, seasonal

Halloween Pumpkinizer

Michael (Admin) | Oct 16, 2008 Entertainment

User rating: (5 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)

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If going to the Hallmark store and paying $3 for a Halloween card to drop in the mail seems like a gross waste of time, money, and natural resources, Halloween Pumpkinizer was totally made with you in mind.

You start off with a pumpkin that has a hole in it, and you can choose a photo from your camera roll to insert into the pumpkin. Wanna make your friends and family look a little evil? Tap the smiley face icon at bottom left and you get a pumpkin with a jack-o-lantern mouth already built in.

Once you’ve chosen a photo, you can rotate it or adjust the width or height. All of these operations require two fingers which is to be expected, but width and height have to be adjusted separately. If you’ve ever played around with The Dark Knight: HaHaHa you’re already used to doing this kind of thing, but I really wish height and width could be scaled in one motion.

After you’ve positioned your photo to your liking, tap “Done” to get a preview and then tap “Save” to save it to your camera roll. From there you can use your iPhone’s email function to send your custom Halloween photo to whoever it was intended for.

This isn’t a bad idea for a seasonal app, and I’m sure plenty of similar apps will follow with Thanksgiving and Christmas looming on the calendar, but it feels like Mexircus could have done a better job on it.

Aside from width and height needing to be done separately (which I find kind of annoying), there’s only one jack-o-lantern mouth available. If this app were free I wouldn’t have a problem here, but I think it’s fair to expect more from a pay-for-me application.

If an update can be released before October 31, 2008 has come and gone, I’d like to see a couple more mouth options with different expressions, and it would also be nice if I could use the app to take a picture for immediate Pumpkinizing. Another absent element is instructions! To the developer this may sound dumb, but I installed Halloween Pumpkinizer and had to do a little guessing before I even knew what the end goal was. Ok, I confess that I didn’t read the app description before buying it, but I believe every app… especially paid ones… should include some kind of documentation.

For $.99 the Halloween Pumpkinizer provides a nice way to say “Happy Halloween” to your pals, but the demanding cynic in me thinks there’s plenty of room for improvement.

Tags: $.99, halloween, seasonal

Crazy Pumpkin

Michael (Admin) | Oct 16, 2008 Entertainment

User rating: (3 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

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Here we go… the first in what will probably be a long line of seasonal apps that you’ll install, uninstall, then reinstall again one year from now.

Ezone has made something of a name for itself in the App Store with their growing collection of “crazy” apps, most of which cost a buck or two. Crazy Pumpkin, however, is free! That’s super nice of them, and I really mean that in all sincerity. I guess it’s their way of “giving back” to a mobile community that has probably paid them many thousands of dollars for their crazy lighters and crazy disco balls and all their other crazy stuff (all their apps are named “Crazy ______” in case that went right over your head).

Crazy Pumpkin is a customizable pumpkin face. You start with a stock face that isn’t all that unique, and then you can swipe your finger across each part of the pumpkin face to change it. Change the eyes, change the nose, change the mouth… or get rid of each part individually.

With the number of different facial elements available you can easily make pumpkin faces that are cute, evil, silly, whatever fits. Give your iPhone a shake and you not only change the color of the face but you also get a Halloween sound effect. Nice touch! There are four colors in all.

This may be a simple app but the kids will probably have some fun with it and Ezone even thought enough to give the colors a little shimmer to mimic the way candlelight dances its way out of carved-up pumpkins. If you have children, get this app right now. And if you don’t… get it anyway! Pagans don’t have that many holidays, so you might as well get in the “spirit” while it’s socially acceptable.

Tags: free, good for kids, halloween, seasonal